Customer Reviews

Splice

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(30)
2 star:		(27)
1 star:		(56)

 

 

SPLICE

STARRING: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chaneac and Brandon McGibbon

WRITTEN BY: Vincenzo Natali

DIRECTED BY: Vincenzo Natali

Rated: R
Genre: Science Fiction / Thriller
Release Date: 04 June 2010
Review Date: 12 July 2010

I'm not exactly sure why I liked Splice, but I did. Even so, I won't be recommending it to anyone I don't know closely, because it's out there and isn't what most people will be expecting - especially based on its trailer.

If you're envisioning Species, you may be let down. If you're thinking Alien; you could be disappointed. It does however; lie somewhat in-between those two great films. And it's also sprinkled with a hint of the sort of family drama you'd find in The Jerry Springer show. I know - I just lost half of you there, didn't I? Still interested? Okay, keep reading.

Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley play Clive and Elsa; scientists as well as lovers. We quickly move on and accept that their employers are either blind to the fact, or don't seem to care that they are beyond fraternizing. A good deal of the film rests on the shoulders of the merit of their relationship, and their on-screen allure makes those portions believable as well as entertaining; mostly by Adrien Brody. He's such a likeable guy, and a terrific actor.

I'll admit Splice takes it's time getting to the point, but I was never bored with it. The - `two characters in a room for prolonged periods of time' approach was handled with care; and there is a very subtle hint of `what the hell is gonna happen?' - teasing those hairs on the back of our necks for the first 30 minutes or so.

After advisors shut down their project, Clive and Elsa secretly push forward with their experiment of splicing animal and human DNA. There must be some kind of strict Hollywood code in Sci-Fi movies, that forces the writers to script the purpose for DNA splicing to involve `the better of mankind', because it's seems like that's always the reason. It is here too.

If you're not asleep by the end of act one, you may enjoy seeing the creature Clive and Elsa have well... spliced. I've certainly never seen anything like it, and was astronomically impressed. A blend of some barely visible CGI and beautiful make-up effects and voila; an original movie monster at last! The actress they hire to play the thing soon named Dren (Delphine Chaneac), does an amazing job at making her convincing, interesting and somehow even slightly attractive.

If you think you can predict where this film is headed, you may be surprised. It is essentially three films in one; each act taking a sharp turn into something else. Several viewers will despise the third act entirely. While it wasn't my first choice of destinations for the film to take me to, I wouldn't say I had the worst time with it.

When I saw the preview for Splice, the first thing that came to my mind was that the movie looked like kind of a rip-off of that 1995 movie Species that Natasha Henstridge walks around in half naked. And while there are indeed some major similarities between Splice and Species, I think that Splice Director Vincenzo Natali actually had another movie in mind when he wrote this movie.

Back in the early 1930s if you were to play God and try to create life how would you do it? We'll, you'd do some grave robbing and try to bring back the dead with a little lightening, right? How else? Because cloning and gene splicing in the 30s was a concept as distant as an iPhone. It's so much easier today. Just take some animal DNA and mix it with a little human DNA, throw it in a Petri dish, incubate, let sit then voilà. It's alive....It's alive!!!

Splice's Dr. Frankensteins are Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley respectfully as Clive and Elsa. (Get it? Colin Clive played the original Dr. Frankenstein and Elsa Lanchester was 1935's Bride.) Clive and Elsa are geneticists and they create their own Frankenstein and call her Dren. Being only half human, Dren has some superior physical powers and--who knew?--introduce a little animal (or bird?) DNA to a human sample and you get a more intelligent being as well. So look out: a stronger, intelligent life form could be hazardous to your health.

I'm surprised that there are so many 1 star reviews for Splice on this page, because the movie isn't really that bad at all. Sure the movie deals with controversial topics, and Dren gets down and dirty with her makers in both a consenting (bestiality?) and non-consenting (rape) way. But questionable opinions and hard to watch sex scenes aside, I was entertained by Splice. There are times when you'll hear yourself saying, "That would never happen," or "No one would ever really do that," but the movie never gets boring.

Splice is certainly no Frankenstein classic, but it is a pretty good Sci-fi flick and I'd recommend it to any fan of the genre.

The best horror films don't merely provide lots of gore and bloodletting, but tap into the primal fears of human beings, as well as the darkest parts of human nature. "Splice" does just that.

Audience reactions seem to be mixed to "Splice", and it's easy to see why. "Splice" is really more of an art film that has more in common with David Cronenberg's films than mainstream horror fare like the "Saw" franchise. The film even stars Sarah Polley, an indie film fixture.

Polley plays Elsa, who, along with her husband and fellow geneticist Clive (Adrian Brody), create a human/animal hybrid in secret, who they later name Dren ("nerd" spelled backwards, a cute way of the two embracing their science geek status). As in all horror films, playing with mother nature turns out to have disastrious consequences.

Although films have long been using this basic plot that goes all the way back to "Frankenstein," what elevates "Splice" is its great script and acting. Elsa and Clive's relationship, which is both collaborative and competitive, facilitates the whole nightmare, as well as Elsa's tragic backstory as an abused, rural kid.

What steals the show, however, is Dren. The film manages to make the creature both childlike, animalistic, and freakishly sexual, which is not only disarming for the audience, but leads to the disturbing plot developments in the film's controversial last act.

Any film that takes the imagination a step beyond is a hit with me! This one did. Just enough reality to keep you interested; you know, not 'so far fetched' that you can't engage with the plot.
It had the right intense factor; and a few twists as well, spiced with a hefty bit of terror - the right recipe for a great Saturday Night special with popcorn at the ready!

On the cutting edge of science, things are now becoming possible that used to be only the province of tales like Dr. Moreau and Frankenstein. And in the highly authentic-feeling "Splice", the central question is, as it has been in many great tales from at least "Frankenstein" onward: with this power, will humanity be able to distinguish between the issues of "what can and can't be done" and "what Should and Shouldn't" be done?

Two scientists, excellently played by Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody, are in the field of splicing genes from different species into one another to create new lifeforms. Though there's a question right and there about ethics, at least the motivations are noble - trying to find cures from disease through new biochemicals, etc. There's a striking but believable self-contradiction in the main characters right there: though they seem attached and even, at times, almost parental in their feelings toward these hybrids, they have no emotional or ethical objection against just how they use these creatures in pursuit of their goals, or in disposing of them when it comes to that. It's when the pair goes against all guidelines and laws by adding human DNA into the mix that things get taken to a much higher level.

The result of the human-animal splice is Dren, a strange little creature that in its infancy appears alternately comical and deadly. The researchers are initially prepared to destroy the hybrid - they never intended to let it get past the stage of an early embryo, then destroy it there and research the remains. But among Dren's wonderous physical properties is a phenomenally fast growth rate, and by its birth that growth rate is already spinning things out of control. Finding themselves unable to kill a newborn hybrid with human DNA and some human characteristics, they hide Dren's existance from their peers and begin to study her. They bond quickly with Dren, with Polley's character first assuming a distinctly mother-like role to the fast-growing Dren. As Dren grows, she becomes extremely intelligent, and the bonds within the group start to take on very disturbing overtones.

Like the Frankenstein creation, Dren - who contains not only human DNA but genes from a whole battery of creatures including scorpions, birds, amphibians, and heaven knows what else - is both the movie's "monster" and its victim. The horror escalates - not in a "the world's going to end tomorrow" kind of way, but in a manner that sees everything going to hell in a handbasket within the main group of characters, and slowly starting to spiral out to those around them. Among the movie's most potent fright weapons is the disturbingly plausible feeling it has - that eventually, somebody, somewhere, will go and do something like this, if for no other reason than to prove that they can. And that the results might be just as unpredictable and ghastly as they are here.

Great special effects and a plot that takes classic themes and moves them into even more twisted territory add to the whole. Great movie, nine out of ten.

Well. I had high hopes for this film, and it started off with a lot of promise. But it turned out to be less of a sci fi film and more of a thriller with several badly-executed plot twists.

I must warn you though, my review contains spoilers, so do not read if you don't want to be spoiled, though I personally think you might be better off if you do actually read, because this movie was hard to take seriously and was a waste of my time. Okay? You have been warned. So anyway the movie starts off great. You got two cute, nerdy scientists (the whole lab doesn't look that professional, this is not a huge lab with white-blue lights and everything. This lab seems to be more underground, and everyone dresses like hippies/hobos/emos under their lab coats, so I'm guessing they're not that well-paid despite the importance of their splicing work.

It seems impossible that no one in the lab would find out about the experiment, but I guess it really is an underground lab with less supervision. However, it remains implausible.

Dren's growth is inconsistent and this movie does not focus much on her growth except for a couple of 'miracles' like breathing underwater or learning how to spell. But she does not speak, even though she displayed that ability at the end of the movie. Then she gets smuggled out, and I'm thinking that 'Dad' was right to have wanted to destroy the experiment in the first place even though he changed his mind later.

Actions and reactions make no sense. Dren's intelligence and learning growth remain inconsistent as if the writers didn't care about it. Later it is revealed that Dren has Elsa's DNA. How is that possible when the ova donated was a Jane Doe? Unless she got one out of herself, but whatever. When Elsa takes the cat away, there is no logic behind this, as Dren was just fine and comfortable with the cat and was obviously not sick. Dren obviously mourns for the cat, but she just sits there with her arms stretched out rather than grabbing the cat back or fighting for it. When Elsa returns the cat, Dren kills it with her tail. This makes no sense.

What Dren did with Dad... I TOTALLY saw this coming ever since little Dren saw Mommy and Daddy together that one night. So it was absolutely no surprise.

I don't know what the heck was up with Fred and Ginger. I mean, bam, Ginger changing and then the two of them fighting and having enough strength to actually unscrew the bolt to their cage? Really? Are you serious?

And then just when you think it can't get any more ridiculous, Dren 'evolves' AGAIN and this time she... er, he does to Mom what he-she did to Dad. I was stunned at this horrible plot twist. The scene added NOTHING to the story. And then bam, at the end of the movie, you probably guessed what happened to Mom before they showed her stomach. And then going back to the research facility and just... the ending was horrible. It's astonishing that a movie with so much promise turned out to be so disappointing.

I went to see this with my wife thinking a sci-fi flick and then some dinner would be a nice evening out. Had I known the movie was going to go the way it did, I would have saved myself the agony of watching it by pouring gas on my feet and setting them on fire. It would have been just as entertaining and nowhere near as painful.

Seriously, I've never had as many WTF moments in a movie as I did this one. My wife and I left the theater shaking our heads and the only saving grace for me was that she was the one that picked this stinker of a movie, so I didn't have to listen to ANY bitching whatsoever about my poor movie choices. In fact, Splice has become somewhat of an "ace-in-the-hole" for me when it comes to getting reamed over a movie she doesn't like.

The plot is standard to start, but then it gets a little twisted. And by twisted, I mean depraved on a level that even a demon from hell would say "That's f'ing creepy, man!". A plot overview is really unnecessary at this point and I'll probably try hypnosis to forget this degenerate film fest. The moral of the story is: Don't stick your pee-pee in the science experiment. Do not take kids to see this. Do not take the elderly, faint of heart or anyone with at least a shred of dignity or moral fiber about them as it will stain their precious minds for the rest of their natural lives. A Lindsay Lohan PSA on the virtues of abstaining from masturbating would be more tolerable to watch than this movie.

Good luck if you get it, but don't watch it on a full stomach. You've been warned.

After hearing the writer director discuss his film on the /Filmcast I watched this movie. I was not disappointed. This is horror for the intelligent film-goer. Sure it has some b-movie aspects and it's not quite a masterpiece, but overall this is an awesome and enjoyable movie. You will not see what's coming!

Anyone can get on Amazon and criticize a film. Very few actually make films. Even fewer take chances and make something as strange and great as Splice.

I absolutely loved this film. Admittedly, it's not for everyone. However, if you're looking for something interesting, strange, and weird, you may really dig this movie. You won't find another wide-release like this.

Splice is for the most part a fresh and original story idea for a horror film that sets itself apart from the many sequels and remakes to have come out in recent years. The film's premise and themes deal with tampering with nature and the fears and controversies behind biogenetic engineering. Similar themes to classic stories such as Frankenstein only with more recent technology and sciences. The film's premise is about two genetic engineers Clive(Adrien Brody) and Elsa(Sarah polley)combining the genes of many different animal species with a human to make a new type of hybrid species. The couple raise their creation named Dren as if were their own child. Dren grows at a rate much faster than normal species and first seems human in nature. However as she grows her animalistic traits start to kick in and she slowly turns on the couple.
This film starts out somewhat slow but picks up pace and moves along faster as it progresses. Splice also offers some shocking and controversial sequences that might be disturbing to some. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley give decent performances and are convincing enough in their roles. Actress Delphine Chaneac probably gives the best performance of the film. Being commited enough with the production to shave her hair off(similar to Natalie Portman in V For Vendetta) and convincingly uses non-verbal acting as her character Dren doesn't speak in any point of the movie. The special effects and makeup used in the movie are sufficient enough and the cgi baby dren or her added on limbs don't come across as fake as many films with cgi effects do. Overall this is a creative and original above average Science Fiction Horror film. One of the better theatrical horror films to come out this year.